Hands that Resurrect

based on Matthew 9:18-19, 23-25

Lent Midweek 4 – April 2, 2003

Pastor Richard Mau

Immanuel Lutheran – Des Plaines, Illinois

 

Matthew 9:18-19, 23-25

While he was saying this, a ruler came and knelt before him and said, "My daughter has just died. But come and put your hand on her, and she will live."  Jesus got up and went with him, and so did his disciples.

When Jesus entered the ruler's house and saw the flute players and the noisy crowd, he said, "Go away. The girl is not dead but asleep." But they laughed at him.

After the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took the girl by the hand, and she got up.

 

Grace, Mercy, and Peace to all of you from God our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, our risen and ascended Lord and Savior.  Amen.

 

            Each Wednesday this Lent we have focused on The Hands of the Savior.  We have seen the Savior’s hands invite us to come to him as he calls all who are burdened as all people, when they know God’s law and his love are burdened with the weight of their sins and look for relief.  Jesus invites all to come to him for that relief.

 

            We have seen a Savior’s hands heal not only the darkness of a man born blind, but also the darkness of our world of sin. 

 

            Our Savior’s hands provide us with all we need to support this body and life in this world and the nourishment and sustenance in his own self as the bread of life. 

 

            We know our Savior’s hands are folded in prayer for his Father’s will that all who believe in Jesus as Savior will be saved.

 

            How do we use our hands?  When something is broken, we fix it with our hands.  Many times a caring father, grandfather, or mother is able to bring a broken toy “back to life” with skilled hands.  There was a wedding cake that suddenly sagged and was falling apart just as the reception was beginning.  It almost looked a total loss until quick and skilled hands brought it back to its original state, depicting the occasion is was intended to celebrate.  Each vacation season sand castles are “resurrected” by the hands of children, small and big, at lakesides and seashores. 

 

            The hands of our Savior, Jesus Christ, have power to raise the dead.  If they were not capable of doing this, he would not be the Savior his is.  Jesus does have power over both life and death.  In the account from Matthew, Jesus brought life back to a little girl who had died.  The people in the house laughed at Jesus as he declared that the girl was only “asleep.” [v. 24] They laughed at him.  They knew when a person’s last breath had happened.  They knew the difference between sleeping and death.  There was no breath left in this girl.  She was dead.

 

            Death is an enemy of life and an enemy of God.  When God created, he created only living things and all that supports life in his creation that was “very good.”  All of creation was intended, in its perfect balance, to support the life he created on earth.  This perfect balance was ruined when sin entered the world.  Disobeying God means death.  Satan and his followers had revolted against God and were sent eternally from heaven.  They now know death, the torment of living outside of God and his love.  They only want what they have, that eternal torment which is death.  As enemies of God, they do anything within their power to draw all men, the crowning glory of God’s creation, into eternal death with them.

 

            But death happens long before earthly death.  Apart from God we are dead in our trespasses and sins.  We are enemies of God in our sinful condition.  We are enemies of God as we daily rebel against him, disobeying his commandments and will for us in thoughts, words, and deeds.  Before God we cannot stand.  Before God, who is holy and just, we cannot live as his glory puts to death all that is not perfect in his sight.  The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life.

 

            When God created man, he breathed into his nostrils the “breath of life.”  [Genesis 2:7]  When God destroyed the earth in the flood, everything that had the “breath of life in its nostrils” died.  [Genesis 7:22]  Job referred to life in him as the “breath of God in my nostrils.”  When we die, there is no breath left in our bodies.  When Jesus died on the cross, there was no breath left in his body.  When Jesus appeared to his disciples after the resurrection, “he breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’”  When Jesus instructed Nicodemus that he must be born again, he spoke of rebirth of the spirit. 

 

            Today, God has resurrected you from the dead.  He has given you the promise of eternal life through Jesus Christ.  He has sealed you in that promise in baptism that brings the forgiveness of sins and saves you from death, sin and Satan.  He gives you resurrected life in his presence in bread and wine, bringing you a sacrificed body that also rose from the grave.  He gives you new life, not of this world but of eternal life with him.  When God gave his one and only son to die for you, you no longer need to fear the valley of the shadow of death because he crossed that valley for you to deliver you beside those still waters. 

 

            Hands that resurrect are given to you in these words from Scripture:

 

Psalm 17:15  And I-- in righteousness I will see your face; when I awake, I will be satisfied with seeing your likeness.

 

1 John 3:2  Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

 

Matthew 5:8  Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

 

John 3:3, 5  In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again."  - - -  "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.

 

Hebrews 7:25  Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.

 

John 5:28-29  "Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice 29 and come out-- those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned.

 

John 11:23-27  Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again."

Martha answered, "I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day."

Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"

"Yes, Lord," she told him, "I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world."

 

 

Job 19:25-26  I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth.  And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God.

 

            The hands of the Savior have resurrected you from the death of sin to newness of life, now and forever.  Amen.

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